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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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PRESENTED BY 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Letter of Columbus, 



TO 



LUIS DE SANTANGEL, 
M93- 




Pac-similes of the Spanish Letter of Columbus 

Published in 1493, 
From the only known copy in the Ambrosian Library, Milan. 



Comni<^jiceniciit 



.SttOiuw qucfecittcanreisplajabela gtatib 
vrcro2iaqu€Tifofcnotmebabat>o mjoi^p^it 
i?03 efcrftio cllapozlaqliabzef 6[tomo ^trm; 
bieas paCe alaa fntna^ cofaarmaM cjae losttlu 

Joiibeyo failetiw^mucbas^tfla^poblabaecotigerc (J'a 
uwnero^j^ 5eUa^ toda^Jjc tcntvabo prfcfiffo po2r«s aUoas 
eoitptegcn3?vackrareaiefte^v^^apwmefttccottabxcbo: 




Close of tUe Letter. 



ala efpaaa tnas a todoa los crifttanos teman aqttf tefrige 
rfo p gauatvciacrtotegnn elfecbo aficubiettefccba cnlacar 
lauern fobic laspdas be canarfa ayv. ^e febicto. ^ilU 
quiatrocifentDSTnotteutaj rresattoj* 

5'ata lo que mrnitiarcps tiimmte, 

iFlpaque^'mJ'a^etftro enlacarta. 

E)efpue8 bcftaeferipto;pcltattdo eumat be CaftiUa falpo 
tauto mntocottii^o.ttil jfneftc quemebafccbo^jcfcargar 
los mmo8 poz mt aqm m cftepnerto bcljJlbona op q me 
la wapoiiiiaratiflla belttttibo aJontlcacoibe efcrCmrafws 
alTc3ao.iEatoda6la& pttbiasbcfiempieballa^o lostcapo 
talcs coiiio cvtmayo aboixbcf o ftif en txm<),b(as zbolni 
eti.tjcwf Jaltto qtteftae cozmentas mcbattbctmtJ^o.rmj,bi 
ascozvfettdopozeltatuar^&ijenaqaa todos los bonbzes 
bclaitiavque/amasono tattmatyuternotiotrttHtas per' 
bibas bet\mua/ecbaa.):»^,i)ia8 bewaco. 

jfitacanactnbto Colottalcfcraiano 0emc(on 
belas 5fl^ balladas enlaa "^ndftta^/^oatetitba 
aotxa^efasMcjae. 



Letter of Columbus, 

TO 

LUIS DE SANTANGEL, 
14 93- 

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.L45 



LETTER OF COLUMBUS, 

14-93- 




PRINTED copy of the 

firft letter of Columbus 

in Spanijh^ addreffed to 

Luis de Santangel/ has at 

0^ length been difcovered in the 

Ambrolian Library at Milan. It 

belongs to a colle6tion of books 

and manufcripts bequeathed to 

1 He is called at the clofe of the letter 
Efcribano de Racion. This office feems 
from Navarrete's explanation to include 
thofe of Secretary and Steward of the Royal 
Houfehold. 



4 

that library about twelve years ago 
by the Baron Pietro Cuftodi, a 
Milanefe hiftorian and political 
economift. It is a fmall quarto 
of four leaves in femi - gothic 
type — that is with black letter 
and roman charadlers mixed : — 
the text begins on the red:o of the 
iirft leaf without any title, and 
fills feven entire pages, and above 
a third of the eighth page. The 
full page contains 32 lines, while 
there are only eleven lines of text 
on the 8 th page, followed by a 
poftcript of 14 lines. I The firft 

1 This Spanifh original muft not be con- 
founded with the other letter written by 
Columbus at the fame time to Rafael 
Sanchez, the royal Treafurer, tranflated 
from the Spanifh into Latin by Leander de 



5 
capital letter, S, is an ornamented 
wood cut, occupying the fquare 
fpace of 5 lines of the text. There 
are neither iignatures, catchwords, 
pagination, nor paragraphs — the 
text being printed without any 
break in the lines. The paper is 
thick, and very much iized — the 
water-mark is an open hand with 
the monogram of Chrift over the 
third finger. The copy is in very 
good condition, with broad mar- 
gins — a drop of oil, however, 
disfigures the laft page. The 
whole leaf meafures 20 centime- 

Cofco. This tranflation has been frequently- 
printed. The two letters are in fubftance 
the fame; but no cotemporaneoufly printed 
copy of that to Santangel was known until 
the difcovery of the one now announced. 



6 

tres high by 14 broad, and the 
printed portion is 13.3 centimetres 
high by 16 broad. 

Belides this full account of this 
precious little book, my corre- 
fpondent has fent me a fac fimile 
of eight lines at the beginning, 
and five lines at the end of the 
letter, and of the whole 14 lines 
of the Any ma at the clofe. A 
copy of this fac fimile is given 
with this notice. Thefe portions 
agree generally with the reprint of 
Navarrete (vol. I, pages 167 to 175) 
from the MS. in the Royal Ar- 
chives at Simancas. There are 
fome variations, the moft remark- 
able of which is his omiffion of 
the words at the end of the letter. 



7 
" Faro lo que mandereys — El al- 
mirante." He has corredled the 
orthography in fome places, and 
leaves out many of the contradtions. 
Some of the readings of the letter 
are better than his, becaufe the 
words it fupplies render the mean- 
ing more clear. The date at the 
clofe is at the Canary lilands the 
15th of February, 1493 ; and that 
of the Any ma the 14 th day of 
March. Of the firft Navarrete fays, 
that the iflands feen on the 15 th 
February were the Azores, not the 
Canaries ; and of the fecond, that 
although the figures feem to in- 
dicate the 14th, the true date muft 
be the 4th of March. Anima^ he 
fays, means a written paper, in- 



8 

ferted in a letter after the letter is 
clofed. 

As there is no place or name of 
printer, thefe muft remain un- 
known unlefs the type and water- 
mark fhould help fome bibliophile 
to make a fortunate conjediure on 
thefe points. The volume, how- 
ever, muft have been printed 
before any of the Latin editions of 
the letter to Sanchez, and moft 
probably in Spain. 

I may refer in this place to the 
fmall 8vo edition in Latin with 
wood cuts ; which fome biblio- 
graphers fuppofe to have been 
printed at Grenada, becaufe the 
arms and name of that city are 
found on the laft page. Mr. 



9 

Brunet infers that this is not to 
be taken as politive proof that 
the book appeared at Grenada, 
and I am not difpofed to affert 
that he is miftaken. But in other 
inftances a limilar mark is confid- 
ered an indication of the place of 
printing : — among thefe I may 
cite the German abridged edition 
of Columbus' Voyages, printed by 
Sigifmund Grimm in 1522. The 
pine-apple on the laft page is 
deemed good evidence that the 
volume was iffued by him at Augf- 
burg. (Vide Appendix B in the 
New York reprint of Syllacius, 
page Iviii.) And I may add that 

the arms of Grenada in the form 
B 



lO 

in which they appear in the 8vo 
edition with wood cuts, are not 
found in any other edition. Even 
the Bafle edition of 1494, which 
copies all the other wood cuts of 
the little 8vo, does not copy thefe 
arms — but gives on the redio of 
the laft leaf, the arms of Caftile 
and Leon as thefe appear on the 
firfl: leaf of the 8vo, and on fthe 
verfo of the fame leaf reproduces 
the cut of the veflel, found on the 
firft leaf, both of the 8vo, and of 
its own firft leaf, with the addition 
of an ornament above and below 
the cut. Thefe different wood 
cuts may be feen on pages xxxvi, 
xxxvii and xlii of Appendix 3 of 
the New York Syllacius. 



II 

In order to avoid mifapprehen- 
fion I may add that in the por- 
traits of Ferdinand both in the 8vo 
and in the Bafle editions, two 
efcutcheons containing the arms 
of Caftile, Sec, and of Grenada 
hang from the arm of the king ; 
but they have nothing to do with 
the crowned efcutcheon, and the 
word Grenada as thefe are found 
on the laft page of the little 
od:avo. 

I regret to fay on the authority 
of my correfpondent that the copy 
of this laft edition, defcribed by 
Roffi, has difappeared from the 
Brera library in Milan. I will 
tranfcribe what he writes upon 
the fubjed:. " Cette bibliotheque 



12 

vient de perdre I'exemplaire de la 
lettre de 1493, fur laquelle Boffi 
a fait fes travaux. Ce vol a ete 
fait avec une audace, et avec une 
adreffe d'efcarmoteur. Elle exif- 
tait encore a la bibliotheque il y 
a lix ans. Nous avons ici des 
amateurs larrons dont on ne fe 
garde pas affez, et qui font la 
pefte des coUedtions publiques et 
particulieres ; il y en a partout, 
mais chez nous fe donnent ren- 
dezvous les filous du monde entier. 
Quant a la Bibliotheque Am- 
broiienne, c'eft different ^ on y eft 
moins coniiant. 






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